Brunch at the grocer’s

King William Rd was a place that we knew about, but just never really explored. But that changed as we slowly discovered little places we wanted to try.

Iced coffee and chocolate

I’ve heard of Jones the Grocer. There’s one in Singapore, and I’ve visited the one in Melbourne before. I just never knew that that was one in Adelaide as well. When I spotted it whilst driving down King William Rd, I nudged Sash beside me and insisted that we had to visit the place one day.
When the sun decided to show its face after a few days of gloom and rain, we set out to Jones the Grocer for some brunch. We found ourselves a seat in the corner of the balcony/patio portion of the shop/cafe/restaurant. At the counter, where you order the food and where the cold food were put on display, there were boards where the daily pasta, risotto, soups etc of the week were written. It took us about 15 mins to decide what we wanted, shuffling back and forth between our table and the boards.

Our drinks came first, my iced coffee was strong, but bitter though tolerable. Sash’s iced chocolate was also a so-so. Our drinks weren’t terrible, but they were also nothing to shout about.

The potato and goat cheese rosti was good, crispy outer layer and a moist inside. Some rosti, spinach, egg and salmon… yums. I slice the first egg open, yellow yolk oozed out of my incision. I was happy. Then I sliced into the second egg. Not so happy. The egg was overcooked, not a drop of yolk oozed. Disappointment. I also thought that the portion of the smoked salmon was a little stingy. I was only given 2 small slices of smoked salmon. I had to ration each bite of salmon to make sure I had enough salmon to accompany the whole dish. :(

Lamb burger with a yoghurt mint sauce

My initial bite of the burger, didn’t have any of the yoghurt sauce, even then I thought it was pretty good. Then Sash mentioned the mint yoghurt, took another bite, and it just made the burger better. The mint yoghurt was the perfect sauce to go with the lamb with its hint of minty-ness, not too overpowering that you feel like you’re chewing on a mint candy. Or worse still, eating toothpaste. The best thing of the dish wasn’t its mint yoghurt sauce, but the chutney that came with it. That little chutney on the side, made me steal dollops of it off Sash’s plate, as well as the wedges. I think it was a mango chutney (I don’t really remember, sorry), and I believe that you’re able to buy a jar of it home from the store.

Overall, my experience at Jones the Grocer was ho-hum. The food was satisfactory, maybe I had expectations that were too high. I don’t know. I wouldn’t be running back to that place again for another meal in the near future.